It’s been awhile since I’ve written about my little angels..just thought I’d give a quick update on my life with my flock. Where to begin..well, I’ve recently developed asthma (since April, and quite suddenly I might add). I saw an allergist after a couple of months of being convinced of my imminent death. And it turns out that I do have a slight allergy to my parakeets. I was convinced that it was my cockatiels, since allergies to cockatiels are as common as allergies to cats. They produce quite a bit of dander, but surprise of all surprises, it turns out that it’s my parakeets. No matter, I’ll never get rid of them.I came to this conclusion after much agonizing, and a reminder from my vet that there are too many birds out there who are emotionally devastated because folks seem to think that birds are just throw away pets who are emotionally devastated every time you just give them away. It sometimes takes months or even a year before they come out of the depression that losing their family causes them.
I did move them out of my bedroom and into my son’s room, which took some getting used to for them. They don’t seem to care for change much. You’d think that I’d moved them into a new home as much as they pouted. It took them two weeks to come out of their cage. Now life is back to normal, my little fighter jets are back at it and flying around like mad again. And Oscar’s (my newest addition to my parakeets and only other male in our flock) wings have FINALLY grown out. He is becoming just as agile as the girls. Well, he’s doing his best to keep up anyway. At least they can’t knock him to the floor anymore while ganging up on him. Women, they sure can be cruel to the poor little guys in the flock. But Oscar IS a chicken, not a parakeet. Of this I am convinced. Talk about species confusion..poor guy has spent his life as a chicken in a parakeets body.
Oh yeah, Carter built a birdhouse in shop last year and I put it on top of the flight cage to see how my babies would like it . Snowball has laid total claim to it. No one else had better mess with her bird house. Whenever i can’t find her, i have finally learned that she’s probably just hanging out in the birdhouse. I stopped panicking and started looking there first. And that is where I find her every time. I just hope that she isn’t trying to nest in there (as I said, owning these complex creatures is a learning experience and if I end up with babies I guess I’ll deal with it, and take the damned bird house away).
What else? My poor little Zeus got sick a couple of months ago. I took her to the vet and she had a sore throat, fever and was just feeling rotten in general. Ten days of antibiotics and $230 later, she was just fine. I’m figuring out just how expensive owning birds are, especially sick birds. Lets just hope that we don’t have anymore sick birds for awhile.
Last but not least , I can’t write this blog without giving an update on the famously spoiled, obnoxious and favorite scooter, can I? He still loves “Uptown Funk”, by Bruno Mars and makes me play it for him 3 or 4 times every day. He sings and dances to it (he also makes me sing and dance along with him). But once in awhile he decides that it’s his show and I’m stealing it and he’ll attack my face if he decides he wants to sing alone. I’ve finally (FINALLY) broken him of sleeping with my husband and have gotten my bed back. He now prefers to sleep in his cage, and you do not dare stick your hand into said cage once he is in bed for the night. Unless you want your finger taken off, of course. He still sits on my shoulder 8 hours out of the day, until my son gets home that is. And then when my husband gets home my son and I are both forgotten…and he has decided that my sister is part of the flock now. He actually associates her with his music. And so when he sees her “uptown funk” is a must. He has also become a bully with my female cockatiels..he can’t seem to decide if he wants to mate with them or terrorize them. sometimes he does both, simultaneously. Men! Right? If there is one thing that I’ve figured out, they are all the same in the animal kingdom. Big babies, bullies, demanding and genetically spoiled. And so this is my update…more later 🙂
cockatielcentral 